Now, experience: I lived in Sydney my first 25 years. I had nine fillings. Then I moved to a fluoride-free water supply. I have had no more fillings or decay since the move. I have lived it and I’m here to tell you that water fluoridation does nothing to prevent tooth decay. So when someone, like Dr Neil Peppitt (letters, Oberon Review, February 8), is telling me water fluoridation works, and I know it doesn’t work, I can show you the evidence of it not working.  

Dr Neil Peppitt, where is the local study? Where is the local dentist extracting all these children’s teeth? We don’t have a full-time dentist in Oberon. In fact, we don’t have a dentist! There must not be enough business to warrant one. That’s a fact.  

Then comes the condescension from Dr Peppitt. To say that people cannot afford toothbrushes …? The state government then pulls all the funding for school dental check-ups. What is going on? It’s going to cost council at least $60,000 per year to put this in the water supply (see Gunnedah NSW Health report). That money buys 34,285 junior toothbrushes ($1.75 each - price from Coles; adult toothbrushes are even less) and given that the town population that receives town water is 2491 (per the last census), that is equivalent to 13 toothbrushes per person, which is more than I use per year. I’d be lucky to use half that many.

So why don’t we just buy toothbrushes for those who cannot afford them? I’ve already established $30,000 per year would easily pay for toothbrushes for everyone in town. We could even help those out of town, who would not be part of the fluoridation program, and we would still be spending less. Is your head hurting yet? Yes, mine too.

It’s the toothbrush and not fluoridation that has been the single best thing for people’s teeth in the 20^th/21^st century. This explains the lower dental decay in fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas alike. I say toothbrushes are the way to go, not chemicals.